On the way to work this morning, I was mulling over what to blog about next. Maybe the next Clandestine Classic, or how I might encourage more Fantasy Cover Version submissions. Or maybe an original piece... perhaps a review of the new Blade Runner film. So what would I write about that, I wondered? How visually stunning it is? How it adds to, rather than detracts from, the original? Or why it might be, in the words of one broadsheet, "under-performing" at the box-office? (A bit too long? Dystopia fatigue? Misogyny or misandry? Pick your keyboard warrior on that last one, I've heard both views.)
Except everyone who writes about films online is writing about Blade Runner 2049 already. If you want a straight journalistic review you could do a lot worse than Empire, and if you want a neat blogged summary you should pay Cultural Snow a visit.
So not Blade Runner then.
Maybe I could finally pull something together to celebrate a pretty much life-long love of walking up hills and mountains? You know, throw in some details of notable summits bagged, add an amusingly captioned photograph or two, maybe a lament to crumbling knees and the fact that my highest peaks are probably behind me, that sort of thing. Endcap it all with a YouTube embed of Kate Bush, maybe. But no. Because no-one wants to read that really, do they? Apart from me.
I find myself veering towards the sort of posts I was writing back in 2006/7/8 that were highly personal and a bit raw: a sort of primal scream into the ambivalent ears of the world. But, if website stats are anything to go by, even fewer people want to read that, so really, what's the point? I wonder if anyone is actually still reading this even, or whether it got abandoned midway through the first para? In the unlikely event that you are still reading, why not enter something in the comments to show me you've got this far - let's say, oh, I don't know, the name of the first single you bought.
What desperate cannibalism it is that allows the mind to consume itself.
Tie a Yellow Ribbon by Dawn and Part of the Union by the Strawbs n primary 7 school trip to London
ReplyDeleteI very much approve of this, especially Part of the Union. +2 kudos points for the primary school trip detail (and for making it through the whole post...)
DeletePlease don't be down on yourself, your posts are never difficult to read all the way through and also just for the record I'd always be happy to read about your hill walking too... It's just a weird old thing this whole blogging malarkey and how we feel about what we write. I've not been in a blogging mood for a while in spite of actually having had quite a few ideas, but then when I sit down to write them it just feels stilted and not natural, so I put them to one side again. Then, yesterday, from nowhere, and with no real advance thought, I found myself gushing triggered simply by the surprise discovery of a little newt. I couldn't have planned that at all. So sometimes I just think: the less we think about these things the easier it is to do. Also the less pressure we put on ourselves. So maybe the key (for me, anyway) is that it comes from the heart, not so much the head?! Whatever - please write about whatever takes your fancy whenever it does, and I'll be reading it all!
ReplyDeleteI think the first single I bought with my own money was in 1976 and it was either In Zaire by Johnny Wakelin or Dancing Queen by Abba. I remember having them both in a little box, where they were soon followed by more Abba singles and some Smokie! That all changed the following year...
A little Strawbs connection: about 5 years ago at a local exhibition, Dave Swarbrick bought one of my drawings!
Thanks, C. +9 points for the kind words and blogging advice. 1 for ABBA and 1 more for your very cool Strawbs connection.
DeleteI will post about hills and mountains sometime. It'll either start or end with Buckden Pike, the summit of which is pictured above.
I meant Dave Cousins, not Dave Swarbrick (think it was that 'Swarb' sound in the name, with it being the Strawbs!) I'm having a bad time with names at the moment for some reason. Wrote Brook Benton instead of Brenton Wood over at Rol's place earlier. Must watch that!
DeleteWhat's a surname between friends?
DeleteGood post.
ReplyDeleteGolden Brown by the Stranglers.
Cheers. And excellent first single - +3 kudos points!
DeleteThank you.
DeleteI think we already know my first single and the less said the better.
ReplyDeleteOut me down for more posts about walking up hills and mountains ...and screaming at the world, obviously.
Cheers Rol. The hills and mountains post will come, eventually, and undoubtedly more screaming. Oh, and the Bionic Woman.
DeleteI always make it to the end....keep up the blogging for the faithful. First single was the fine Love Plus One by Haircut 100 and I still love it whenever I hear it played as it occasionally is. Mind you I never really moved on from the 80s...
ReplyDeleteCheers ears. And you deserve a medal, not for making it to the end but as the longest-serving reader of this here blog.
Delete+5 points for the first single, an outstanding track. And don't worry mate, you know you're not alone as an eighties throwback...